


Jasmine

by koalathebear



Category: The Expanse Series - James S. A. Corey
Genre: Coffee, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Multi, Non-Canon Relationship, Polyamory, Tea, Wrong Ships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9917762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: Set sometime during/after Babylon's Ashes and prompted by the fact that a lot of Holden's chapters have him thinking about Clarissa, albeit with unease and mistrust, but she's definitely on his mind a lot.  Not the first time I've ended up with a wrong!ship ...   Please don't hate me.





	

Holden was sitting alone in the galley, a half-finished bulb of coffee on the bench before him.

Clarissa Mao walked through the doorway and then stopped abruptly, clearly about to turn on her heel and leave again without saying a word.

Despite the tightening in his gut, he told her,"You don't have to go."

Her pale lips parted slightly as if about to speak but she ended up saying nothing, walking over to the counter instead.

"There's still some coffee if you want some," he offered her, his voice cool and polite.

She ducked her head slightly. "Thank you. I'll just make some tea," she said softly, her voice barely a whisper. She had clearly just come from the machine shop, still wearing her oversized overalls, goggles resting on the top of her head and a smear of black grease across her cheek.

He knew that Clarissa did her best to stay out of his way, blending into the shadows, moving as silently and swiftly as she could past him on the rare occasions when they encountered one another. He was always acutely aware of her, though. Her soft voice through the comms, the quiet way she stood against the wall, back straight and face expressionless, the way she'd glance over at Amos for confirmation.

She was a hard worker, he'd give her that. She worked without complaint, tirelessly and diligently. Now and then he heard her joking around, exchanging banter with the others – a soft chuckle, a quick smile. Never with him, of course. If she saw him, she'd almost stand to attention or just vanish like a shadowy ghost.

Rising to his feet, he went over to the counter, intending to get more coffee. Clarissa's small, narrow hands were ripping open a sachet and dropping a tea bag into a cup. There was an almost reverential air to the way she did it, almost ceremonious.

"Not a coffee drinker?" he asked her curiously and she glanced up at him, eyes wide. Other than their awkward conversation in the medical bay after she'd been shot, they generally both avoided speaking with one another except where safety required it. She shook her head and her black pony tail swung slightly.

"I find tea more calming," she told him simply. "On Luna … I'd pour the boiling water onto the little jasmine balls and watch them unfurl slowly … it was strangely peaceful…"

"How are the tea bags doing it for you?" he asked her, a surprisingly teasing note in his voice.

Her mouth twitched with a faintly surprised smile. "Not quite as soothing … " she admitted, pouring the boiling water into the mug and jiggling the tea bag a few times. "But they'll do."

His gaze lingered on the pale smoothness of her skin, the way her slender body swam in the oversized she wore. Not as tall as Naomi, she was also slender and graceful … her thick black hair dead straight and glossy. She smelled of a light fragrance … not the regulation soap that they generally used on the Roci – he could only assume she'd bought it during their last docking, or maybe Amos had bought it for her. The relationship between the two was still unclear to the rest of the clue. Close, very close – but was it sexual yet? No one knew. It was certainly intimate with the two of them communicating in an almost unspoken manner, with Amos behaving in a protective manner towards the girl who had once tried to kill them all.

"What happened here?" he asked her, reaching out to take her hand and examine the bancage on the back of her hand. 

She flinched as if she'd been burned, looking up at him wide-eyed. "Cut it during routine repairs … I wasn't concentrating."

"Hope Amos gave you whatfor for it … how come you haven't gone to medbay to get it sorted?"

"Want to finish up some work first … will head there later …"

"Well make sure you do," he told her, releasing her hand lightly, a little unsettled by his body's reaction to touching her bare skin.

He topped up his bulb with more coffee and then with a nod at her, he walked out of the galley, leaving her staring after him.

*

Clarissa didn't always disembark when they docked. "I'm not really into big crowds of people anymore …" she'd explained to Amos once. "I'll stay with the Roci…"

Holden had returned first and gone in search of her, finding her alone in the machine shop with an array of assorted parts on the bench before her.

"Hey," he greeted her.

"Captain," she replied warily, formality in her posture and expression. "Wasn't expecting any of you back for a few hours …"

The others were still at the bar drinking. Holden had wandered off on his own. "Got you something," he told her stepping towards her. He could tell her that she resisted the urge to take a step back, to move back against the wall and make herself small and invisible.

"That's not necessary …"

He handed her a small packet that he had purchased from one of the stores at the station … it had cost him a good amount of scrip and her eyes widened as she had stared down at the packet of Dragon Ball Jasmine Green Tea. The packaging was simple brown paper, the only splashes of colour the red and black script that she could barely read despite the lessons of her childhood. 茉莉龙珠花茶. Julie had retained more from their lessons. Clarissa had been better at the curse words.

It had been a long time since anyone other than Amos had given Clarissa anything and she was rendered almost speechless. Holden's dark eyes watched her closely, his own expression closed and enigmatic.

"Thank you," she told him quietly. She glanced down at the packet and then back up at his face. "Would you like me to make us some tea?" she asked him and he nodded.

They walked to the galley side by side in silence, glancing at the other wordlessly and then looking away.

Holden stood leaning against the bench watching as Clarissa tipped a few precious balls of tea into two mugs. She sang something softly beneath her breath … the words barely audible and he did not recognise the melody or the language.

"What are you singing?"

She stopped, a faint flush in her cheeks. She hadn't realised that she was singing aloud.

"It's called 茉莉花mòlìhuā … it's an old folk song … we sang it when we were children ... it means … jasmine flower."

She recalled singing it with Julie, hands clasped and faces flushed with laughter as their mother shook her head at their atrocious accents.

"I've never heard it before," Holden told her, his expression intrigued, his gaze not wandering from her face.

"Yes, but you grew up in Montana … " she said, putting the slightest hint of a drawling twang in her voice, making Holden's mouth curve in a delighted smile of appreciation.

She held up a cup of the steaming hot tea and handed it to him and he took it, his fingers brushing against hers deliberately as he took it from her.

He took a sip, breathing deeply of the subtle fragrance of the tea, savouring the freshness of the flavour, watching as she took a swallow from her own cup.

"Do you like it?" she asked him very seriously, her large dark eyes studying him closely.

"Yes … I do … " he replied, sounding quite surprised.

*

"Jasmine tea?" Naomi asked him later as she brewed a fresh batch of coffee.

"Yes."

"First time?" she queried and he nodded.

"How was Drummer?" he asked her and she turned around to face him, not a flicker in her gaze and he ran his finger tip along her lower lip that was still slightly swollen from kisses that hadn't come from him.

"Good," Naomi told him, a faint smile curving her mouth, drawing his head down to hers as they kissed lingeringly. He could still smell Drummer's perfume on her skin ... taste her on her lips. They'd clearly been busy. 

Naomi handed him a bulb of coffee. "So which do you prefer? Coffee … or tea?" she questioned.

He took a sip of the freshly brewed coffee. He closed his eyes and thought about his response.

"Would it be all right if I said I liked both?" he asked her.

Naomi smiled. 

"Yes."


End file.
